Contamination of Southern Iran s Sea waters with Microplastics (Case Study: Seawater of the Coastal Sea of Bushehr)

Plastics are one of the most important emerging pollutants in aqueous media that has recently attracted the attention of global researchers. The low rate of decomposition, sustainability and prolonged presence of plastics in aqueous solutions are the most important reasons for concern about these contaminants, especially microplastics. Therefore, the presence of microplastics (plastics less than 5 mm in size) was investigated in five Bushehr seaboard stations, including Imam Ali Roud Station, Park –E- Siadat, Bandargaah, Del Aram and Khoorshahab village. For this purpose, at each station, using the Manta Tour (The size of the holes is 333 microns) with 5 replications and for 20 minutes surface water of the sea, were harvested and after digestion of the organic material in the specimens using Hydrogen Peroxide 35%, samples were filtered using filter paper and then microplastics were detected using optical microscopy and visual interpretation. In general, 175 microplastic particles were detected in samples with a frequency of 154 fibers, 11 film plastic particles and 10 fragments. Also color analysis of microplastics showed that the colors of black, red, brown, white, blue and other colors were the most abundant. Although, the results of one-way analysis of variance showed that there was no significant difference between the frequency of identified microplastics at different stations (p-value = 0.49), but considering mean frequency, the descending trend of Imam Ali Roud > Khoorshahab village > Del Aram > Bandargaah = Park –E- Siadat were observed with average values of 12, 7.2, 6.6, 6.6 and 6.6 respectively. Therefore according to the results the most polluted station was Imam Ali Roud.